Ego Identification -- Credo IV

All the world’s a stage
and men and women merely players . . .
Shakespeare, As You Like It

My definition of a person who is cut off from his Self (Divine Guest) is that that individual defines life as “just one damn thing after another!”

There is an analogy to the theater possible. It goes as follows:

1. A guy is an actor and goes to the theater to play Hamlet.
Where does he go first? Dressing room to put on Hamlet costume.
He goes on stage and does the best job as Hamlet that he can.
Goes back to dressing room and takes off Hamlet costume, goes home, and “has a beer”!

2. But what if he went on stage and got stuck there a lifetime believing he was Hamlet! He would be consciously identified with the part he was playing – no beer!

3. Each of us may be playing a part given our own name and identity and we play it for a lifetime, but we are offered a break – one automatically and another thru our intention.

The first is when we sleep. Whether you are a king or a beggar, a wife or a poet, a child or a guru, you are free from the outer world.

4. The other is the conscious intention to meditate, to contemplate, to observe yourself. When we do this, as most of you know already, the ego becomes object to the Self as subject. You have a moment of living your life with captions! “Watch! Alice is suffering.” “She is anxious,” etc. After a while, it occurs to oneself to ask, Who’s watching? Viewed this way, the Gnostic Gospel of John’s ‘Round Dance’ makes sense: Learn how to suffer and not to suffer!

Jung’s description of individuation expressed theologically, he said, was Incarnation. Incarnation, being in the flesh or body requires an ego to play the part of ________ (supply your own name) but that is only your identity in this life! So who you really are is the one who is watching and fine-tuning the part for the Self, ambassador to the Divine Guest.

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Next time you look at a regular candle, look at it symbolically. Viewed from above, it is a circle with a wick. The wick = Self. The flame = Divine Guest.

Fire is the one element of the four that is multiplied by sharing. Many candles: One flame, One Light, One Love. So, to quote an old saying: “Better to light one candle than to curse the darkness.”

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When ‘having that beer’ I am increasingly aware that there is a difference between happiness and joy. The ego can be happy/sad when we identify with it, but sharing that consciousness with the Self allows us to give the kick out of living a life to the Divine Guest and to the collective thus making the whole PLAY meaningful. This rewards even us, the actors, with Joy.

As to what the whole PLAY is about, “God only knows!”

Lovingly,
ao